Cambodian PM Hun Sen to step down after four decades - CNA

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, said on Wednesday (Jul 26) he will resign and hand power to his eldest son after almost four decades of hardline rule.

The former Khmer Rouge cadre has run the kingdom since 1985, eliminating all opposition to his power, with opposition parties banned, challengers forced to flee and freedom of expression stifled.

His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won a landslide victory in an election on Sunday with no meaningful opposition, taking 82 per cent of the vote, paving the way for a dynastic succession to his eldest son that some critics have compared to North Korea.

"I would like to ask for understanding from the people as I announce that I will not continue as prime minister," the 70-year-old said in a special broadcast on state television.

Election authorities disqualified the only serious challenger, the Candlelight Party, on a technicality in advance of the election, and the CPP is expected to win all but five lower house seats.

The government hailed the 84.6 per cent turnout as evidence of the country's "democratic maturity" but Western powers including the United States and European Union condemned the poll as neither free nor fair.

The newly elected parliament will convene on Aug 21 and a new cabinet will be sworn in the next day.

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2023-07-26 07:37:00Z
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Snap Insight: Foreign Minister Qin Gang's abrupt removal is embarrassing for Beijing and Xi Jinping - CNA

PATH FOR “WOLF WARRIOR” DIPLOMACY

For China’s diplomacy, it has meant confusion, as the change in minister has seemed to seize the mechanisms of the ministry and led to other countries being unable to advance their diplomatic goals. Mr Qin missed a key Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers’ meeting in Indonesia, for instance, and a host of bilateral and multilateral meetings that went with it.

Furthermore, Mr Qin's ouster makes it less clear how China’s diplomats should present themselves: Should they be bold and brash as Mr Qin had been earlier in his career as a wolf warrior, or cautious and less combative to avoid a similar fate?

Even with the most-senior diplomat, Wang Yi, being a similarly confident and at times abrasive voice, lower-level Chinese foreign service employees keen for promotion are unlikely to want to stick their neck out right now.

Over time, Beijing will no doubt bring greater stability to the top of the ministry, installing another minister and moving on from Mr Qin’s short tenure. But for now, the abrupt way in which Mr Qin was kicked to the kerb, with his silent disappearance creating a vacuum for speculation, has just created turbulence and disorientation in China’s diplomacy. 

Christian Le Miere is a foreign policy adviser and the founder and managing director of Arcipel, a strategic advisory firm based in London.

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2023-07-26 01:30:00Z
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China's New Foreign Minister Wang Yi Has Longstanding Ties With US Counterparts - Bloomberg

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1. China's New Foreign Minister Wang Yi Has Longstanding Ties With US Counterparts  Bloomberg
2. China replaces foreign minister Qin Gang with predecessor Wang Yi, after brief stint and weeks of speculation  CNA
3. China removes foreign minister Qin Gang; Wang Yi gets old job back  The Straits Times
4. China Names Wang Yi New Foreign Minister to Replace Qin Gang  Bloomberg
5. Gone in seven months: China's fired foreign minister Qin Gang  CNA
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2023-07-25 19:09:14Z
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'Silver fox' Wang Yi returns to lead China's foreign ministry - CNA

BEIJING: China's top diplomat Wang Yi has been given back his old job as foreign minister, one he had held for almost a decade from 2013, after the shock removal of his short-lived successor.

Wang, 69, is a career diplomat and fluent Japanese speaker who served as China’s ambassador in Tokyo and head of China’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office.

Likened to a "silver fox" by China’s state media and online admirers due to his greying hair and diplomatic wiles, Wang currently heads the Chinese Communist Party Foreign Affairs Commission, the top foreign policy decision-making body.

Regarded by some of his foreign counterparts as suave and charming, he has become increasingly tough in recent years: A proponent of China's aggressive and often abrasive "wolf warrior" style of diplomacy.

"No matter how blonde you dye your hair or how sharp you make your nose, you will never become European, American or Western," he told South Korean and Japanese counterparts at a forum earlier this month, in a criticism about their pro-western stance.

He told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022 that the U.S. should "stop trying to deal with the Chinese from a position of strength."

When he met Blinken in Beijing last month - the first visit by Washington's top diplomat in five years - he told him China had "no room for compromise or concessions" on Taiwan, the democratic island China claims as its own and Washington supports.

Journalists have also been on the receiving end of Wang's sharp tongue.

After a Canadian reporter asked him about human rights in 2016, he responded by saying the question was "full of prejudice against China and arrogance".

"I don’t know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable,” he said through an interpreter.

Wang had been kept busy after stepping down as foreign minister in 2022.

He was seen as instrumental in brokering a surprise peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March and then stood in for his successor Qin Gang at several engagements after he disappeared from public view for a month before his removal.

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2023-07-25 14:33:22Z
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Gone in seven months: China's fired foreign minister Qin Gang - CNA

A fluent English speaker, Qin was twice foreign ministry spokesman, between 2006 and 2014, and chief protocol officer between 2014 and 2018, overseeing many of Xi's interactions with foreign leaders.

As ministry spokesman, he stood out for being one of the first diplomats to speak aggressively in defence of China's increasingly assertive foreign policy, a style that became known as "wolf warrior" diplomacy.

During his stints as foreign ministry spokesman, he became known for his caustic responses to difficult questions from journalists.

The Diplomat magazine called him "one of the first Chinese foreign ministry celebrities" for his memorable lines, such as when asked his opinion of US rock band Guns N' Roses' album 'Chinese Democracy', he replied: "Not many people are fond of this kind of music because it's too loud and noisy. Besides, you are a mature adult, aren't you?"

But analysts say Qin's real break came when he entered Xi's direct orbit as chief of the foreign ministry's protocol department between 2014 and 2018.

That job involved organising Xi's foreign trips and accompanying the leader on them.

He served as vice-foreign minister between 2018 and 2021, before becoming US ambassador.

Qin also displayed willingness to work with the United States, declaring upon his arrival in Washington as ambassador in July 2021, after a period of unusual public vitriol between US and Chinese officials, that relations held "great opportunities and potential".

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2023-07-25 12:19:00Z
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Singapore records first 2 deaths from dengue for 2023 - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – Two people died from dengue in Singapore between April and June, logging the first deaths from local dengue infections for 2023.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said in its quarterly dengue surveillance report on Tuesday that 1,989 cases were recorded in the second quarter of 2023, a 15.7 per cent decrease from the previous quarter.

This is the fourth consecutive quarter in which the number of dengue cases has dropped, despite a high number of cases at the start of the year. The 279 weekly cases recorded in the first week of 2023 were the second-highest for the first week of the year in the last five years.

NEA said then that the spike was driven by a high Aedes aegypti mosquito population and low population immunity against the prevalent dengue serotype then.

Dengue is spread through the bite of a female Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same species that carries yellow fever and Zika.

Symptoms can appear three to 14 days after a person is bitten. They include joint and muscle pain, severe headache with pain behind the eyes, and skin rash.

The number of dengue clusters identified from April to June dropped by about 34 per cent compared with the previous quarter, according to the latest NEA data.

Of the 213 clusters detected, 170 were closed in the same period.

However, NEA has detected more mosquito habitats, with about 5,300 identified in the second quarter of 2023. This marks an increase of about 15 per cent compared with the previous quarter.

The top five breeding habitats for the second quarter of 2023 in homes were pails, flowerpot plates and trays, vases, canvas sheets and plastic sheets, and refuse bins placed outside landed houses.

The top five breeding habitats for the same period in public areas were covered perimeter drains, discarded containers, gully traps, scupper drains of housing estates and covered carpark drains.

People can be infected with dengue up to four times as there are four serotypes of the dengue virus. Repeated infections increase the risk of severe dengue and death.

NEA’s report noted that the dengue serotype-1 virus accounted for the majority of the cases sampled between April and June. This was followed by dengue serotype-3, dengue serotype-2 and dengue serotype-4.

The peak season for dengue is from June to October because of warmer weather, faster multiplication of the virus in mosquitoes and accelerated development of the mosquitoes.

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2023-07-25 09:40:00Z
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‘Wiped out my savings’: Taiwan woman shocked mum spent most of her US$90,000 - South China Morning Post

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‘Wiped out my savings’: Taiwan woman shocked mum spent most of her US$90,000  South China Morning PostView Full coverage on Google News
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2023-07-24 10:00:14Z
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